


Memory Lane is a Dirty Alley

by Tridraconeus



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, meeting in a dark alley to talk out problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-28
Updated: 2014-06-28
Packaged: 2018-02-06 13:11:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1859259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tridraconeus/pseuds/Tridraconeus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've grown apart, different personalities and ambitions driving the two of them farther and farther. Sometimes the quickest fix is to shatter it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memory Lane is a Dirty Alley

**Author's Note:**

> An idea that has been bouncing around in my head for a while. I hope you enjoy it! I hope that I kept Eddie and Harvey suitably in character.

      The air's heavy and thick, a premonition of rain. Not the light, constant showers common of Gotham, but a real storm. That storm would serve as a cover for shady activities from the numerous criminal groups that had set up shabby shop in Gotham. Already, certain activities were going on in the back alleys. Not so illicit, though, just a meeting between two old friends. They stood opposite, one in a suit, one in street clothes.

      "You brought a gun, I see," the redhead noted drily. Not with any surprise; he himself had a gun tucked at his side next to his ever-present knife, and an admittedly purely visual cane clasped loosely in his hand. It was topped with a painstakingly carved and painted question mark, his trademark sign.

      "Of course. This isn't a very good part of town."

      Eddie's eyes twinkled with silent laughter. "Ah, Harvey- You're aiming to change all that, aren't you?" He stood straight, ceasing his leaning on the grey concrete side of the building. "Admirable, but this is my little corner of the Gotham garbage heap."

      "And that's why I'm running, to throw out the garbage," Harvey retorted quickly.

      "You don't have to pitch yourself to me," Eddie reminded his friend. "I already know what you're planning to do. Save it for the 'good citizens of Gotham'." And he'd helped write some of his speeches, too, mailing them anonymously, although he had the feeling that Harvey knew. Harvey snorted.

      Alright, it had been a while since he'd seen Eddie. He'd definitely heard about him. So many things had changed since they were boys running around the streets, playing men and acting wise. At least Harvey had been acting; Eddie had always been brilliant in his eyes, and it made him wonder why it wasn't the redhead running for DA instead of him.

      Eddie had stubble now. Maybe he thought that it made him look grown-up- had Harvey not known his age, he would have guessed seventeen, eighteen at tops- and it didn't really work. Harvey had stubble too, but it worked with his wide chin. With Eddie, it only made him look younger.

      "How's Gilda?" It's clearly leading up to something.

      "She's doing okay," Harvey answered after a pause. "She says she'll be at my next speech."

      Eddie smiled, tilting his head like a fox at a rabbit's hole. "I'm not, but I'll be watching."

      "You're always watching, Ed. You've got eyes and ears everywhere now." The banter was becoming increasingly terse; opposite sides of morals tended to clash, and even if they were friends a while ago they just couldn't be friends now. They'd grown apart, painfully.

      "I do. I've used my influence well. Eyes, ears- and hands." A hint of smugness slid into his voice, a little bit of a hungry tone that managed to make him seem far older than he really was.

      "You're twenty-four, Eddie. That's way too young to be a criminal mastermind." It was an argument they often had when Harvey was still in law school, that Eddie could stop being a criminal and come be a lawyer with him. Eddie always declined, calling Harvey a goody two-shoes in that affectionate way of his. They both knew that it wasn't going to work out.

      "And you're twenty-six. And you're running for District Attorney, Apollo." Eddie chuckled, tapping his cane along the ground, following pockmarks- bullet holes, Harvey noticed with slight alarm. Nevertheless he dipped his head to hide a smile at the moniker that the press had attached to him. "But you're going to make it. You can do it. You're smart."

      Harvey looked down again as if trying to memorize the dingy ground. He knew Eddie would support him, he always had, even if Harvey didn't want him to. It was just what friends did. It was more than what friends did, it was family did. They'd formed their own twisted version of a family once theirs didn't suffice. Harvey's family grew to include Gilda, Bruce, Gordon- Eddie's had Oswald, Selina, occasionally Jonathan when he wasn't gassing himself and others into wonderland. Harvey wasn't sure what to think anymore, how to reply to the subtle praise Eddie had just offered.

      "Not as smart as you," he settled with. The words were met with a snort, but no disagreement. The younger man thought for a second before coming up with a suitable reply.

      "But smart enough."

      Beady eyes glinted back the steely moonlight, rats hidden under the dumpster at the mouth of the alley just beginning to venture out in search for food. Harvey couldn't even start to believe that Eddie, fastidious cautious Eddie would live in and control such a place without changing it completely. It didn't seem real, somehow. Almost like a lie.

      But Eddie didn't lie. He wrapped the truth up in words and mysteries and riddles, but he didn't lie. Harvey always knew where to go for the truth when he got tired of seeing his colleagues bending and warping it. Maybe this was a reflection of the real Edward, dirty and dank and seething with hatred covered up with ice-blue eyes and a tongue that struck quicker than a snake and with twice as much venom. Harvey never thought that a place could feel hatred, but if any place could- this desolate, dingy alley did.

      He didn't even notice Eddie standing away from the wall and preparing to leave.

      "Well, I have crimes to commit, laws to break, police to riddle. Give 'em hell, Harv."

      Eddie peeled away from the conversation, dipping his head and not even giving Harvey a chance to think up an acceptable goodbye.


End file.
